So Tom at least realized that is would be beyond crass to have ‘Lisa’s Story’ WIN the award. We’ve learned something about the lines he will and wont cross.

But when you thought the plotline couldn’t get any weirder or more half-assed, we don’t get to see the announcing of the award, or the immediate reaction. We jump from before the award being announced to some time following later.

I would hate to be Tom’s wife, the man has trouble experiencing a climax. Everything is foreplay to him, followed by a blackout and then an awkward denouement. Since his massive Atomic Komix startup saga tapered off even his foreplay has been perfunctory. Perhaps we are entering the era of endless quickies, shorter and shorter storylines eventually turning the strip back into the one shot comic it once was.

Panel One: Cayla hands her ‘Honey’ divorce papers.
Panel Two: Les drinks while being insulted by an imaginary cat.
Panel Three: Les asks out an attractive woman at a book fair.

No one writes about writing like Batiuk does. By that I mean that most writers don’t ordinarily endlessly crow about the one noteworthy thing they wrote eleven years ago and ideally prefer to, you know, write new stuff.

I know that this is a late-to-the-party complaint, but Wally would never have had that Vietnam-era battle jacket issued to him. The design was replaced in the 1981 by the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) which was issued in various camouflage patterns until 2005, when it was replaced by the Army Combat Uniform.

No one writes stories like BatNard does. And I don’t mean that no one writes “stories” like his, I mean it would never occur to anyone else to structure and tell a story like this. He omits literally all the action as an artistic choice, instead preferring to center the strips around talking about preparing for the event and the boring aftermath of the event, which consists of Les shrugging and Harry scoring an extra slice of cake. And as CBH pointed out above, this is the CLIMAX of the arc, the strip he’s been building toward for two weeks.

I guess he realized that awarding himself a “real” fictional award would be a leap into full-blown insanity, or maybe it’s just that patented Batom false humility again, but at least I was wrong about a week-long acceptance speech, thank God.

I like how Cayla’s not allowed to express sympathy to Darin herself, she has to include that in her speech to Les. I guess he doesn’t allow her to talk to other men or something.
Also, there’s still tomorrow. When Les will say there are more important things than awards, and a random hot blonde will walk up to him and tell him “Lisa’s Legacy Trilogy” changed her life and start making out with him while Cayla sits there, smiling three inches away from Les’s face.

So next week is going to be a calm and reasoned critique of why all awards processes are inherently unfair? With some Eisner insider letting Creepy Les know his chances were sabotaged? With a rising tide of anger against the unfairness of it all that sees Les Moore handed a Special Eisner, which he accepts with his usual modest smirk?

But when you thought the plotline couldn’t get any weirder or more half-assed, we don’t get to see the announcing of the award, or the immediate reaction.

Probably so that we don’t get to see what actually beat Lisa’s Story. He knows that it’s crass for it to win, but he doesn’t want to actually indicate something that would be able to beat it for an award that he apparently respects. If it’s “Happy’s Fun Time Pap” or something, Les would either be gracious, which would be granting respect to a type of work that Batiuk himself doesn’t believe deserves respect, or Les would be petulant, which would make him a giant asshole.

But if it’s “Floppy Bunny’s Mom Dies of Parkinson’s Disease and Everyone’s Sad”, then the work has managed to beat Lisa’s Story at its own game, which Batiuk wouldn’t tolerate either, even though having Les look gracious in defeat would be sanctioning something Batiuk feels is worthwhile.

There’s no way he’d show Lisa’s Story losing to a work that actually exists.

So I guess this is Batiuk’s way of not being blatantly crass but also not showing anything actually beating His Greatest Story Ever Told.

If it’s “Happy’s Fun Time Pap” or something, Les would either be gracious, which would be granting respect to a type of work that Batiuk himself doesn’t believe deserves respect, or Les would be petulant, which would make him a giant asshole.

This would also make Batiuk look like a gigantic petty asshole in reference to, again, an award that he apparently respects. Saying that the Eisner Awards would recognize a piece of worthless fluff over a Beautiful Work of Art® tears down the judgment of the real life organization giving out the award.

Les did win a Johnston for most preachy line delivered by a cancer patient. He won a second Johnston in the new category “Preaching from beyond the grave”. The awards were being held in Calgary at the same time as Comic Con.

It’s as if there’s a reason why he’s taken to avoid showing the actual event: fear of what people who ‘hate’ him might say…and the worse fear that they’re right to say it. Les will spend next week howling about losing to a vague something but a specific something would expose Batiuk to ridicule and admitting to the rightness of it.

Crazy Harry this week has been, by comparison anyway, the one likeable character in this stupid arc. Showing up in a tux (did he even change his clothes between being invited on “Formal Friday” and showing up at Comic-Con?), peering intently through opera glasses…OK, banging on the table and “WHEEEEEEEEEET!!!” -ing was a little out of line…but then today, with his napkin tucked under his chin, offering loser Les his cheesecake. It’s kinda sweet.

Possibly he did not name the winner as a practical matter since the Author claims to be writing this a year ahead of when it’s going to published so he didn’t know who was going to win. Which does make the arc even sillier if you think about it. Honestly he could have made up a bloody award, maybe named after the forgotten comic book artist that Boy Lisa discovered. Then Les and Boy Lisa could win it and they could accept the award with the ghosts of Dead St Lisa and the Comic book artist (whose name I don’t remember and won’t look up) applauding al la Family Circus and all the readers of the strip would get an idea of what it was like to drown in treacle.
On the other hand I like t think that Summer driven half insane by Les’ completely ignoring her existence has taken advantage of them being out of town to come back to Westville and set their house on fire. Right now as Crazy is offering Les cheesecake Summer is watching their house burn her mad laughter rising above the din of approaching fire engines. It’s the romantic in me.